Mulgrew had been at the receiving end of several legal actions and last month he narrowly escaped conviction in a ticket-fixing conspiracy. A federal jury had acquitted Mulgrew and four of his former colleagues of mail and wire fraud charges, but they found him guilty of lying to a grand jury about granting favors to friends, relatives and political allies when it came to traffic tickets.
The present case was about the scheme to skim state grant dollars meant for neighborhood improvement reported Philly.com.
U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II commented upon Mulgrew's work in reversing the early-90's decline of the Pennsport neighborhood and found it ironic that Mulgrew was headed to jail for stealing from the same people he helped to grow. Jones said, "The same people he was benefiting then were some of the very same people whose public money he accessed and misappropriated."
During his sentencing, Mulgrew apologized to the court and to his neighborhood and family for his behavior. Reading out a statement, he said, "I'm very remorseful for my actions … I am sorry for these mistakes, and they will never happen again."
In addition to prison time, Mulgrew will have to pay the IRS an additional $123,000 in back taxes and fines, and will have to repay about $200,000 to the state.
